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Thursday, April 5, 2012

How I Got My Agent: Part Two

All right, so I left off at the e-mail. (Here’s the first half of the story, in case you missed it yesterday.) As I mentioned before, the
e-mail went something like this:

“I’m leaving for Bologna
in a few hours, but I don’t want to do this long distance, and I don’t want to
wait.”

The Call There was more, of course, but that was about as
much as I got on the first read-through:) I ran into the living room and did a
little boogie, with much screaming and fanfare, at which point my two-year-old panicked and dissolved into horrified
tears. (I guess I’m not very good at emoting excitement over terror.) Then I
e-mailed Kate back and let her know I could talk whenever. (Happily, I’d just
fed the baby, but even if I hadn’t, I probably would have said the same thing.)
She called me not long afterward, and I did my best to act casual again.

At the end of our conversation, Kate assured me that the
offer wasn’t going anywhere and that I could take whatever time I needed to
make my decision. (Loved that.) We agreed to talk again the Monday after she
got back from Bologna.

The Other Offer After I hung up (and after I fed I-gots and
Lady, lest you think I’m a delinquent parent), I e-mailed the other agents who
had outstanding manuscripts or queries. I’d gone on a query binge the week
before, so there were a few more of these than there would have been. A lot of
them e-mailed me back within a couple of hours to wish me well and step aside. But
the next morning, another agent, who was also on her way to Bologna, got in touch. She was very
interested in the manuscript and wanted to talk when she got back.

Frankly, I was shocked. I’d spent the last few weeks telling
myself that Steve wasn’t going to be the One, either, so I had a hard time
processing the idea that not one but two amazing agents were interested enough
to offer. It definitely fell under the category of Too Good to Be True.

But it wasn’t. I talked to Agent Amazing the following
Friday, and we had a lovely chat. To be honest, I hadn’t expected to like Agent
Amazing as much as I did. And for about twenty-four hours, I was a basket case.
I reviewed my notes from both conversations. I went back over the e-mails
Kate’s and Agent Amazing’s clients had sent. (I firmly believe that every
writer should get in touch with one or two of an offering agent’s clients. You
need to know how the agent operates behind the scenes so you go in with your
eyes wide open (or so you don’t go in at all).) Then I talked the whole thing over
with Honey Bear. And in the end, I went with my gut.

I signed with Kate.

Things I Love About My Agent

1. She’s familiar with my other projects and likes the kinds
of stories I write.

2. She sees this manuscript sitting in the same place on the
shelf that I do.

3. She caught the FRANKENSTEIN allusions and connected with
Ella Mae as a reader as much as I did as a writer.

4. She wanted Steve enough to forgo packing another pair of
shoes and pick up the phone instead:)

If you’d told me a year ago it would take another year for
me to finally land an agent, I probably would have screamed and thrown the
keyboard across the room. But if you’d told me that agent would be Kate Schafer
Testerman, I would have put the keyboard down and slowly backed away. Some
things are worth the wait.

I love this story, Krista. As long time follower of your blog (without having a blog myself lol)...it was bound to happen to you sooner than later...and it did. What a wonderful way to end March and begin April :-)

Yay! I'm so happy for you Krista! Steve is such a nice guy, I'm sure he and Kate will be happy together. WOw. Editors and revisions and deadlines...that's kind of intimidating! Esp. deadlines! Much cheering for you going on here!

Jeff, I ended up sending 77 queries, but I sent 15 or 20 of those in the week before Kate offered.

Thanks, Angie! I hope you get a chance to read Steve someday:)

Thanks, Julia! And thanks for spreading the word!

Kelly, no editors or revisions or deadlines yet. Of course, from where I stand right now, those are problems that I'd love to have:) (All you published or soon-to-be-published authors out there, feel free to correct me on how naive that kind of thinking is.)

Yvonne, I think a lot of writers feel like they can't ask an offering agent for some client referrals, but the answers I got from both sets of clients were so helpful. It's definitely worth asking about. (And you know, if an agent refuses, that's kind of a big red flag right there...)

What a gracious thing to say, Sierra. Definitely no pride issues going on with you.

Wow, how I love to read these stories! Congratulations, Krista. You've worked your keister off and totally deserve to bask in this wonderful feeling! Thanks for all you've done for the writing community. I've utilized your interviews countless times. Can't wait to see your book on the shelves!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! This is so exciting and i love that you share your story. It's always nice to have a heads up of what we might expect when our turn comes around (hopefully!) Kate sounds wonderful. I'm so excited for you!

Congratulations! And thanks so much for sharing your story and for everything you do with your blog. I hope a publishing deal is right around the corner for you.I was going to enter your new contest, but couldn't quite figure out how to get a link to my facebook to work. Oh well, at least I had something to write about on facebook for once!

My projects aren't coming along well right now *sigh*. I had to do a ton of traveling this semester for work and it's just not the sort of person who likes pulling out my laptop on an airplane (there is never enough room and the person in front of me always leans back their seat).

But I did finish the first draft of the project you read and I'm about to embark on the great journey of revising(definitely taking into account everything you said, because it was good advice!). I'll keep you in the loop when I finish my revision. Hopefully it'll be leagues better than the messy first draft!

(And I can't believe you had a baby and got an agent this semester! That has to be one of the most successful semesters I've ever heard of!...and yes, though I'm no longer in school I still think in semesters. lol)

Mandy, ha! It has been a pretty successful semester:) And I can understand how hard it is to write when life is crazy. (I haven't written much in the last few months, either.) I'm happy to hear you finished the first draft of CHRIS CHAPPELL, and yes, do keep me in the loop!

Thanks, Michael! Best of luck to you, too. I'm looking forward to reading SHAKESPEARE ON THE LAM someday:)

So thrilled to read all the details! And hahaha on scaring the toddler! I saw the twitter exchange and my eyes were bugging out of their sockets. I was sincerely hoping something good was coming your way! ;) Also, at one time, we'd talked about swapping beta reads. I may have to hit Myrna up now. J So happy for you, Krista!

Kristin, thank you! As for beta reads, do get in touch with Myrna, because she's plain fabulous. And I don't need a new pair of eyes at the moment, but if you ever need someone to look over a few chapters, feel free to get in touch!